Soundtrack - 192kbps MP3, really?!

Pledge/Kickstarter
#1

Let me jsut say that I put out this criticism with all the love in the world for team and the game but as a KS backer I am really ticked off here…

I know that right now it is likely very low priority given that game needs patch desperately. but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give us the soundtrack in FLAC or some other lossless format. I was half content with 320kbps MP3 I expected but this is really hit on the nose and not really listenable on any decent rig (especially given this is symphonic orchestra). I was really stoked for soundtrack as I like symphonic music and this is serious disappointment :frowning:

3 Likes
#2

flac would probbly be much too big (and you cant really hear the difference)
but 320kbps would be better for me too since my audio system is very good

#3

I have very good rig too. That is why I want quality sound. And you are correct: I would be hard pressed to recognize 320kbs. I did couple double blinds awhile back and I get just barely statisiticaly significant difference.

BUT:
1 . Why not just go for sure with lossless. Then you KNOW rather than presume
2. There is really no drawback to flac whatsoever. Too big? You mean compared to 30+GB game? That might have been issue at times of dial up. Irrelevant nowadays. Anyone who wants it smaller for cellphones and such can just do the conversion themselves.

1 Like
#4

Yeah, and in the process, you can fix the playlist to contain correct track file names (hint: replace spaces with underscores) :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

As much as I like the game and the soundtrack, I was also quite disappointed finding only 192kbps MP3s. The problem with lossy compressed files is not that they sound particularly bad per se, but that you’ll get generational losses when converting to other formats. That’s why I usually only buy CDs or FLAC downloads, so I know I have a “good” copy archived, from which I automatically derive lossy versions for various devices.

So pretty please, to make some of your Kickstarter supporters more happy, would you provide a high-quality audio version (preferably no lossy compression, i.e. FLAC) of the soundtrack? Note that there should be virtually no compatibility issues left with FLAC; playback support is now built into Windows.

Edit: Oh, and to add some clarification regarding “not particularly bad”: yeah, it sounds fine if you don’t pay much attention to it, but MP3 at this bitrate is pretty terrible at encoding orchestral music. Listing on a HiFi setup you’ll find that the strings are washed out, that instruments with strong harmonics (such as harpsichords and similar) are not rendered very well, and that percussion instruments are lacking clarity.

3 Likes
#6

The OST on the CD sounds great… but, the sound quality in-game is very poor!.. It’s so ‘hissy’ with a terrible noise floor, that it ruins playing the game on headphones. It’s a real shame as the sound design is really good, but the noise intrudes way too much.

#7

I agree, 192kbps is really subpar. Why should we listen to a mangled version of the composer’s work? With 2018 download limits and speed flac should always be an option.

#8

So music on CD is in expected quality, yet digital soundtrack is subpar 192kbps mp3? Very nice service indeed…
As if they recorded superb orchestral sound and then intentionally gave us mangled version of it for some reason. Doesn’t make much sense to me.

By the way, with HD audio (whatever that means) for game available, I guess size shouldn’t be a problem.

#9

Bump. it has been a year. Us digital version backers are still short compared to physical ones who got CD with lossless sound. If anyone from WH is reading this, can we ever expect this to be remedied? I am rather sad about this especially since game itself was so great.

#10

I am an iOS user and I am new in this field. I am facing iTunes has an invalid signature. Is there anyone who have faced this?

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